Well before she saw for herself what SA Army soldiers are doing to safeguard South Africa’s land borders last week, Defence and Military Veterans Minister Angie Motshekga told a Parliamentary questioner the number of personnel deployed on the Operation Corona tasking is insufficient.
She did not provide numbers in her response to Freedom Front Plus (FF+) Chief Whip Wouter Wessels writing there are currently 15 companies, also called sub-units, and four battalion headquarters currently assigned to border protection duties. Her response to his request for the “specified number of SANDF (SA National Defence Force) troops” being sufficient to protect South Africa’s porous borders” reads “no, due to resource constraints in terms of manpower and equipment”.
On what soldiers do on border protection Wessels was informed, among others, over nine thousand “undocumented persons” were intercepted and handed to police and Department of Home Affairs (DHA) officials in the 2024/25 financial year. Unspecified contraband valued at R182 million and more than 20 tons of dagga was confiscated from smugglers in the same 12-month period. In addition, 27 weapons were confiscated, 4 592 head of livestock were recovered, 357 criminals were arrested, and 120 stolen vehicles recovered.
The sustainment cost for bases and patrol vehicles of the ongoing border protection deployment, Motshekga’s reply has it, is R326 361 975 for the period between the 2020/21 and 2025/26 financial years.
African National Congress (ANC) Member of Parliament Mzimasi Hala was another public representative seeking ministerial input on the SANDF border protection tasking. He was informed by Motshekga, again ahead of her Limpopo visit, “specific portions” of the defence budget are allocated to equipment shortages and reinforcing operational effectiveness.
Medium term allocations totalling R700 million will be used for improving “border mobility and technology” with an additional R498 million “reprioritised within the SANDF”. This is, according to the ministerial response to “address concerns regarding tents, tactical technology and soldier safety”.
Motshekga, accompanied by SANDF Chief, General Rudzani Maphwanya, was in Limpopo on the South Africa/Zimbabwe border on 17 December for what is termed an operational briefing and visits to support and forward operating bases. She was briefed at the Limpopo Joint Tactical Headquarters by Officer Commanding, Colonel Herold Tladi, in the presence of Joint Operations Division Chief, Lieutenant General Siphiwe Sangweni; the Joint Operations Headquarters GOC (General Officer Commanding) Major General Godfrey Tulare and senior personnel from the Border Management Authority (BMA), the SA Revenue Service (SARS) and an unnamed “traffic department”.
Tladi, according to Defence Corporate Communication (DCC)/SA Soldier writer, Thando Ramasimong, “outlined measures implemented to prevent and deter illicit activities, including enhanced patrols, co-ordinated operations with other security stakeholders and sustained troop presence in identified hotspot areas”.
Post the briefing the Ministerial party moved to the Ha-Tshirundu River, a specific crossing point on the Limpopo River. Surveillance, patrol patterns and other unnamed border safeguarding measures were demonstrated before moving on to the Echo 1, 2 and 3 stations as well as the Boerdery station and the local support base.
Motshekga and company had a hands-on experience during this part of the year-end visit when soldiers intercepted a vehicle transporting contraband goods. Two suspects fled on foot, with a third “apprehended and subsequently handed over to civilian law enforcement authorities for further investigation and processing”.
Before departing the border area, Motshekga is reported as telling men and women in uniform her “observations from the oversight visit would be conveyed to an [unspecified] Inter-Ministerial Committee for consideration”. She is also on record as informing them her visit “reflected government’s continued commitment to strengthening border security and supporting deployed members safeguarding South Africa’s territorial integrity”.
